Fondant Fridays: Flower Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes many a blue moon ago and completely forgot to share. I stumbled upon them last night as I was deleting some of the two bijillion photos I have of bakes. And as today is Friday, it worked out very well indeed.

I made this batch for a friend who's mom was celebrating (obviously) the big 6 0! Like the baby shower cupcakes, I think they make a cute accompaniment to a prezzie. I love making fondant flowers, there is something I find strangely relaxing about it and they always look super pretty, especially in abundance.

They were lemon sponge with lemon buttercream frosting and went down a treat!

Short but sweet on this beautiful sunny day.

Hope you are all out enjoying it and it lasts for the weekend!

Shirley x

Fondant Friday: Baby Shower Cupcakes

A while back, a friend of mine was invited to a baby shower. We having the usual chit-chat of what to bring, already knowing the mommy to-be had almost everything already. She had already bought a small gift, So I suggested why not bring along some cupcakes? They were super cute and a real nice touch if I may say so myself.

The mommy-to-be didnt know the sex of the baby so I did a mix 'n' match batch. I loved making each individual topper and although the were a bit time consuming, I adored the end result. I could honestly whittle away cupcake toppers each evening and die a happy woman. The went down an absolute storm at the baby shower. Sometimes the smallest little details can make the biggest impact...I was beyond delighted.

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

Shirley x

Two Tone Vanilla Buttercream

Yaaay! I'm finally back online.

Our poor little city was battered with a storm yesterday and we had a major power outage. We sat by the fire and candlelight all reading our books. It was actually quite a surreal experience. I started to re-read the twilight saga as I felt we were in for the long haul but thankfully it came back just a little while ago. I yahoooed and did a happy dance much to my family's amusement.

We actually had to laugh. You would think what we would miss the most would be lighting or heating or the fact we couldn't cook anything but no. It was tea! We all suffered major withdrawals. The kettle was the first thing to be put on even before the heating....We are tea people!

Luckily some baking had been done already this week. It was my Dad's birthday Tuesday so I made a traditional Strawberry Victoria Sponge. G had also been giving out he didn't get any cupcakes last week so I whipped some up.

A few posts back I showed you How I do my two toned buttercream but I spotted another method on pinterest so I said I'd give it a whirl. This method consisted of filling your piping bag with two different coloured buttercreams.

While this method did look pretty, it was a lot messier. And it used up more dishes. Anything with less wash up is better in my books. I used a light pink and dark pink and it did still give a beautiful effect. I just think next time more striking colours would be better.

How to make two toned buttercream? #2

 

What you need

• piping bag
• piping tip of choice
• gel food colouring of choice
• two bowls
• buttercream

Instructions

1. Whip up your favourite frosting ( a neutral colour, I used a vanilla frosting ).
2. Divide your frosting into two separate bowls. I used a red (poinsettia). Add a drop or two of the colouring to your frosting. Add a few extra drops to the second bowl. Play around with the colouring until you achieve the colours you want.
3. Put tip into your icing bag. Using a spatula scoop one frosting into one side of your piping bag. Scoop the other frosting to the other side of the bag. It is slightly messy so don't be too annoyed if the colours mix. Push from the top of your bag and twist. Squeeze out a small bit from your piping bag until you see the two different colours. And pipe!

Hope everyone has a lover-ly (ya see what I did there!) Valentines.

Shirley x

Two Tone Valentine Cupcakes

Awhile back I dabbled in this two toned cupcake craze that I'm sure you've all spotted on pinterest. It's pretty simple really and I absolutely love the effect it gives. With Valentines coming up I thought I'd try a red and white contrast. But actually when I look at the photos it reminds me more of an ice-cream and syrup topped cupcake, which I reckon wouldn't taste too bad either :)

I tried it out for some Christmas cupcakes and said I'd be back when I had the technique down. Well here I am folks and here's the technique I use...

They say a picture says a thousand words but seriously....That's it! Simple right?!

But just incase here's the breakdown...

How to make two toned buttercream?

 

What you need

• piping bag
• piping tip of choice
• gel food colouring of choice
• fine tipped paint brush
• buttercream

Instructions

1. Put tip in icing bag, I used my Wilton 1M tip. With an artists brush, paint two thin lines of gel food colouring on opposite sides inside the bag. 
2. Fill your piping bag with vanilla buttercream (recipe is below). 
3. Twist your piping bag at the top and push from the top of the bag to get rid of any air bubbles. You do not want to squeeze from the sides. It will smudge your colour and you could lose the clean two toned look. And that's it...ready for piping!

Recipe for Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

 

Ingredients

• 225g unsalted butter,softened
• 400g icing sugar
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp full fat milk, room temperature

Instructions

 

1. In a large bowl, beat butter until extremely softened and almost fluffy.
2. Add icing sugar and slowly beat working up to full speed. If you go full speed straight away you will end up with an icing sugar cloud and it goes everywhere......been there!
3. Add milk and vanilla extract and beat mixture until light and fluffy.
4. Scoop into your prepared icing bag and pipe!

Isn't this such a great and easy technique? I'm sure you could dabble around with all different colours. Maybe two or three different colours in the icing bag. A rainbow of colours topping your cupcakes..how fab!

I topped mine with small heart shaped iced sugar cookies. With it being Valentines around the corner it seemed only fitting :)

Happy Thursday!

Shirley x

Lemon and Poppy Seed Cupcakes With Lemon Buttercream Frosting

I made these cupcakes only just last week but they are soooo good I made some again last weekend. I went for a little twist on the cupcakes I made last week and topped them with a lemon buttercream frosting instead of the vanilla buttercream

These cupcakes are lemony zesty goodness just by themselves. So I went a little easy on the addition of lemon juice in the buttercream. These are just as good as they were last week and my house is divided on which buttercream was nicer....vanilla or lemon?

Recipe for Lemon and Poppy Seed Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Makes 12

Ingredients

Lemon and Poppy Seed Cupcakes

• 175g butter, softened
• 175g caster sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 60ml full fat milk, room temperature
• zest of 2 lemons
• 1tbsp lemon juice
• 225g self-raising flour
• 2 tbsp poppy seeds

Lemon Buttercream Frosting

• 225g unsalted butter,softened
• 400g icing sugar
• 1tsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp full fat milk, room temperature

Instructions

Lemon and Poppy seed Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 160°C.
   
2. In large bowl, beat butter until completely softened. Add caster sugar and beat until light and fluffy. This may take a few minutes. Gradually add eggs and beat until well combined. Add milk,lemon zest and lemon juice and mix well.
3. Gently fold in flour and poppy seeds until mixture is well combined. Evenly dollop mixture into cupcake cases. I usually use a ice-cream scoop for even distribution.
4. Bake in oven for 12-15mins (I use a fan-assisted oven) or until a skewer comes out clean.
5. Try and avoid temptation and leave cool on wire rack.

Lemon Buttercream Frosting

1. In a large bowl, beat butter until extremely soft and almost fluffy.
2. Add icing sugar and slowly beat working up to full speed.
3. Add milk and lemon juice and beat mixture until light and fluffy.
4. I piped mine just for the prettiness but a big dollop with a spoon is just as good!

I'm sooo in love with these cupcakes...............can you tell lol?

Happy Tuesday :)

Shirley x

Lemon and Poppy Seed Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream frosting

 

I have been wanting to make these cupcakes for ages, like literally a year. My sister Jacqueline had tasted one and said I had to make them. I'm a huge fan of poppy seed bread (dangerously so) and so I was only too happy to bake them. There was only one problem...............trying to find poppy seeds!

I tried everywheerree. They didn't want to be found.

So when I spotted on my daily dose of bloglovin' that a fellow baker/blogger, Hazel from cupcakery had found them. I couldn't have been happier. I purchased a 1kg bag so be prepared to be bombarded with poppy seed recipes :)

These cupcakes are zesty lemony goodness. They are honestly the nicest lemon cupcakes I've ever tasted. The poppy seeds add lovely little dots of crunch. They are light and perfectly lemony. I went with a vanilla buttercream to balance the zesty cake. It was moist,lemony with a little crunch,they are delicious!

Recipe for Lemon and Poppy Seed Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Makes 12

Ingredients

Lemon and Poppy Seed Cupcakes

• 175g butter, softened
• 175g caster sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 60ml full fat milk, room temperature
• zest of 2 lemons
• 1tbsp lemon juice
• 225g self-raising flour
• 2 tbsp poppy seeds

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

• 225g unsalted butter,softened
• 400g icing sugar
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp full fat milk, room temperature

Instructions

Lemon and Poppy seed Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
   
2. In large bowl, beat butter until completely softened. Add caster sugar and beat until light and fluffy. This may take a few minutes. Gradually add eggs and beat until well combined. Add milk,lemon zest and lemon juice and mix well.
3. Gently fold in flour and poppy seeds until mixture is well combined.
4. Bake in oven for 12-15mins or until a skewer comes out clean.
5. Try and avoid temptation (which nearly killed me!) and leave cool on wire rack.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

1. In a large bowl, beat butter until extremely softened and almost fluffy.
2. Add icing sugar and slowly beat working up to full speed. If you go full speed straight away you will end up with an icing sugar cloud and it goes everywhere......been there!
3. Add milk and vanilla extract and beat mixture until light and fluffy.
4. Pipe or just dollop on cooled cupcakes.....mmmm!

These cupcakes are honestly so good........I'm baking them again this weekend!

Happy Thursday :)

Shirley x

Oreo Cupcakes With Oreo Buttercream Frosting

Warning: Major overuse of the word "Oreo" in this post :)

Is it just me or are Oreo cupcakes everywhere? Every blog, website seem to be obsessed with these cupcakes. So naturally, being the nosy baker I am, I had to see what all the fuss was about. There are about a bijillion recipes out there. In fact I don't think there is any one specific Oreo cupcake recipe. I decided to do my own thang and chuck Oreos into my usual vanilla cupcake batter and buttercream.

The results were not too shabby at all. I did do the "hidden Oreo" at the bottom of the cupcake which is probably a must when making these. They have the dense dark chocolatey flavour of the Oreos with the light vanilla sponge in contrast. The frosting is creamy and smooth with the crunch of the Oreos.

They are an Oreo lovers dream!

 

Recipe for Oreo Cupcakes with Oreo Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

• 110g butter,softened at room temperature
• 110g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 110g self-raising flour
• 1-2 tbsp full fat milk
• 3 heaping tbsp crushed Oreo (crumb like)

For frosting

• 140g unsalted butter,room temperature
• 280g icing sugar
• 1-2 tbsp milk
• finely crushed Oreos

 

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.  If you would like to do the "hidden Oreo" at the bottom. Place a full Oreo flat at the bottom of each paper case.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs a little at a time and stir in the vanilla extract.
3. Fold in the flour and crushed Oreo crumbs using a large metal spoon, adding a little milk until the mixture is of a dropping consistency. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until they are two-thirds full.
4. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or insert a skewer into one of the cupcakes until it comes out clean. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and cool fully on a wire rack.
5. For the frosting, beat the butter in a mixer until slightly pale,add sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy. This may take a few minutes. Fold in desired amount of finely crushed Oreos (this additon of crumbs will make your frosting an off white colour) and top as you please. I went for larger,chunkier crushed Oreos to give it a bit more bite!

          So there you have my version of Oreo Cupcakes, sure to please all you Oreo lovers out there!

                   

                              Today I'm linking up with the lovely folks over at chef-in-training.com!

Shirley x

Vanilla Cupcakes With Vanilla Swizz Meringue Buttercream

I had to make this buttercream THREE times, not once, not twice but threeeeee times. I will admit I was pretty knackered when  it came to making it and my baking brain wasn't at full speed. I had invited all the family for high tea and had been baking for literally the whole day so I'm not sure if it was tiredness or this buttercream is just a pain to get right. I have seen it made numerous occasions, Anna Olson and Ina seem to do it at their ease, so I'm putting the first two failed attempts down to tiredness.

In the end, when I was finally happy with the results it turned out to be a pretty nice buttercream. Is it going to knock cream cheese frosting as my No.1? No but its fluffy and satiny and a great buttercream to decorate with. I will definitely be giving it a go again........hopefully I'll get it on my first attempt this time! I used my favourite Vanilla Bean Cupcake recipe and topped them with mini eggs which I loooove,far too easy to eat!

 

Recipe for Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream

 

Ingredients

• 225g caster sugar
• 3 large egg whites
• 300g unsalted butter,room temp
• 1-2 drops vanilla extract

Instructions

 

1. Using a large heat proof bowl, place the sugar, salt and egg whites and place over a pan of simmering water making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water. Stir occasionally to dissolve the sugar, you’ll know when the sugar has dissolved as the mixture won’t be gritty.It will be smooth and runny.
2. When the mixture is smooth, using a hand held electric mixer, whisk on high speed until you have a thick meringue. Remove the bowl from the pan of water and continue to whisk on low speed until the meringue has cooled to room temperature,you can check this by feeling the outside of the bowl.
3. Add your butter in chunks one at a time and continue whisking. Don't worry if it looks scrambled, it will eventually become smooth. Add your vanilla extract and food colouring if you wish.Whisk until you have a smooth and silky buttercream.

For some reason I could never get to the meringue stage on my first two attempts, maybe it was the bowl or my sugar wasn't dissolved properly but hopefully ill be back with better news on my next attempt. I'm thinking some pureed strawberries would be amazeballs in this.

Hope you have better luck than me and get it bang on first go!

Shirley x

Cadbury's Creme Egg Stuffed Cupcakes

If you are creme egg obsessed then this cupcake is for you! I know its probably hard to get your hands on the mini creme eggs now but if you do......

These babies are not just topped with the little egg of gooiness, there is also one inside the cupcake..SURPRISE! "Ooooooo" seemed to be the main reaction. Don't you just love biting into a cupcake or muffin to find something delicious stuffed in?

I decided to go for the Mini eggs as I didn't want it to overwhelm the cupcake but it didn't, so if you you feel the urge to stick a full sized Cadburys creme egg in there, go for it!

 

"How to put Cadbury's Creme Egg inside a Cupcake?"

 

 

What you need

 

• Your favourite chocolate cupcake batter. You could use a box mix just as easy whatever works for you!
• Cadbury's Creme Eggs minis or be a rebel and go original size:)
• A freezer

Instructions

1. Place your Creme Eggs in the freezer for 10 mins. You want them to be chilled, not frozen. This way the egg doesn't loose its thick chocolatey shell and the gooey consistency of the egg remains the same.
2. Preheat oven & whip up your cupcake batter.
3. Fill your Cupcake cases 1/3 of the way with your batter.
4. Remove your eggs from the freezer and place onto your batter. This way the egg is in smack bam in the middle of your cupcakes.
5. Spoon over your remaining cupcake batter until 2/3 full.
6. Into the oven for the required cooking time and cool.

You'll be left with a delicious cupcake with a chocolatey gooey surprise inside! I topped mine with Swiss Meringue buttercream and half a creme egg. The eggs cut perfectly in half the fact they were chilled. Would love to get my hands on some caramel eggs.....


Shirley x

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes With Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

Another year, another Paddy's day gone. I spent the weekend with family and friends eating,drinking,singing and laughing. It was one of the best Paddy's Day for a while. Hope you all had a great weekend too!

My Parents,sister and her boyf were over in Cheltenham (that's horse racing for all you people, like myself,who haven't a clue!) so I whipped up some vanilla bean cupcakes and vanilla cream cheese frosting for their return. Thinking that obviously some of these would see St.Patrick's day (the next day) I went with some green,white and gold/orange sprinkles. These being homemade sprinkles they were all different sizes and chunks but for a first attempt I was pretty happy.

My sister did make the comment that the orange looked like grated cheese ha ha, which I'd actually have to agree with but one did not have orange food colouring on hand. Bitta red,bitta yellow..kaboom! Orange!... but because of soo much food colouring the orange is slightly chunkier. I'm putting this into the lesson learnt file.I got this fab idea from the lovely Janine over on Sugarkissed. If you want to venture into sprinkle making (which I recommend you try) head on over and check it out. So simple, yet effective!

I looooove cream cheese frosting. They are my all time favourite frosting, well that I have tasted so far!

Recipe for Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

 

Ingredients

• 450g cream cheese, softened  
• 125g butter, softened  
• 250g sieved icing sugar  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Instructions

 

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Do not just throw all ingredients in together, it tends to go really runny. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the icing sugar. Store in the refrigerator.

I actually used an extra tsp of vanilla and added some cream to balance it out, it was divine!


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Just a quick little note..... Those of you who follow me on twitter and instagram will have noticed I'm baking but not blogging. I have no excuses for this except for pure and utter laziness. I do apologise to each and every one of you. Sooweeeeeee!!

Shirley x

Chocolate Malteser Cupcakes

I think if you asked most people to name a few things they love about summer,the smell of cut grass would be in there. I love the smell of freshly cut grass and new flowers blooming, I basically love being in the garden but it does not love me!

Ahh-choooo.......Hay fever!

This morning I think I have sneezed 4 billion times, looked like a women who was crying while walking to the pharmacy and then coughed my way home. I detest taking antihistamines, they make me sooo sleepy even the apparent "non-drowsy" ones.

Dear Pollen count, Give a girl a break!

So what does one need when feeling rubbish........Cupcakes :)

 

Recipe for Chocolate Malteser Cupcakes

 

Ingredients

 

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 heaping tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

Chocolate  Buttercream Frosting

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 3-4 cup icing sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 3-4 tbsp milk
• 2 packets of maltesers

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C.
2. In a saucepan,gently melt the butter,add cocoa and mix. Carefully add the boiling water and boil for 30 seconds. Turn off heat and set aside. 
3. In a large bowl, mix flour and sugar. Pour in the chocolate mixture and combine.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the egg and buttermilk. Add the vanilla and baking soda.
5. Pour egg mixture to your chocolate/flour mixture and mix well. This is quiet a runny mixture so I transfer mine to a jug, which makes it easier to fill the cupcake cases!
6. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Frosting

Beat butter until softened,add icing sugar and beat for 1 minute,add vanilla and milk and beat for 3-4 minutes. If too thick, add more milk until you get the desired consistency. Crush maltesers while still in package and add to butter cream,mix! If you plan on piping this butter cream make sure your maltesers are finely crushed!

I also snuck in a couple of maltesers into the bottom of some of the cupcakes, just to see if it would make them yummier and when it came to frosting them I couldn't remember which ones they were! So I'm nosy to test my palette and see if I can tell which ones are which ;)


Shirley x

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

My friend Aoife decided to have a games night so naturally I volunteered to bring "game night" themed cupcakes (Any excuse to bake right?!). Naturally my first thought was fondant but instead I went for something even easier.

Here's what you need....

Mini marshmallows + black edible marker = dice cupcake toppers!! Simple!

I made vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with vanilla and chocolate cream cheese frosting...yum!
I must also give a mention to a recipe I found for "The Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake",I loved this recipe,it really is worth a go but I must warn you it is more expensive than usual.It uses vanilla pods which cost me €6 for two!!! So maybe just for special occasions :)

The Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

Yield: 16 cupcakes

• 1 cup (225 grams) granulated sugar
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 3/4 cups (175 grams) cake flour, not self-rising
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup (57 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup (75 grams) full-fat sour cream
• 1/4 cup canola oil or vegetable oil (60 ml)
• 1 tablespoon pure (not imitation) vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup (160 ml) whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C).
2. In a small bowl, combine sugar and seeds from the vanilla bean. (For those of you who are new to using vanilla beans, check out this video to learn how to get the seeds out of the bean.)
3. Using the back of a spoon, move around the bowl and apply pressure to break up any clumps of seeds and to better infuse the vanilla flavor into the sugar. Set aside.
4. In a medium-sized mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, mix together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
5. Add the vanilla bean sugar and mix until well combined.
6. Add butter and mix on medium-low speed for three minutes.  Because there is so little butter, you'll end up with a very fine crumb texture.
7. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream, oil, and vanilla extract until smooth.
8. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined.
9. Slowly add milk and mix on low speed until just combined.  The batter will be liquid.  (Don't worry, you didn't do anything wrong.  It's supposed to be that way.)
10. Fill cupcake liners just over 1/2 full.
11. Bake for 14 minutes and then test to see if they are done. They are done when a toothpick comes out without wet batter stuck to it.  The cupcakes should appear white with specks of vanilla bean. They should not turn a golden brown.  If they are not done, test again in two minutes.  If they are still not done, test again in another two minutes.
12. When the cupcakes are done, remove them immediately from the tins and leave them on a cooling rack (or just on your counter if you don't own a cooling rack) to cool.

Recipe from "cupcake Project"

Happy Baking!

Shirley

My "C'mon Ireland" cupcakes!

I made these to cheer on our boys in green in the Rugby World Cup,the match was on at 6 a.m so I was thinking they probably would have been eaten for lunch instead of breakfast,how wrong I was! They were gone by 7 a.m!

These are sooo simple to make!

• Make your usual cupcake batter.
• Split the batter in two and add (in this case)orange food colouring.
• Put your orange batter in your cupcake cases first,then followed by your plain batter.
• Cook!
• Whip up some buttercream,add a dash of green food colouring and pipe over your cooled cupcakes.
• Et voila! The Irish tri-coloured flag cupcakes!

Happy Baking!

Shirley